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Trapping of DNA by dielectrophoresis
Author(s) -
Asbury Charles L.,
Diercks Alan H.,
van den Engh Ger
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/1522-2683(200208)23:16<2658::aid-elps2658>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - dielectrophoresis , electric field , electrophoresis , dipole , microfluidics , trapping , electrode , molecule , dna , materials science , chemical physics , nanotechnology , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , chromatography , physics , organic chemistry , ecology , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , biology
Under suitable conditions, a DNA molecule in solution will develop a strong electric dipole moment. This induced dipole allows the molecule to be manipulated with field gradients, in a phenomenon known as dielectrophoresis (DEP). Pure dielectrophoretic motion of DNA requires alternate current (AC) electric fields to suppress the electrophoretic effect of the molecules net charge. In this paper, we present two methods for measuring the efficiency of DEP for trapping DNA molecules as well as a set of quantitative measurements of the effects of strand length, buffer composition, and frequency of the applied electric field. A simple configuration of electrodes in combination with a microfluidic flow chamber is shown to increase the concentration of DNA in solution by at least 60‐fold. These results should prove useful in designing practical microfluidic devices employing this phenomenon either for separation or concentration of DNA.